Description
Maximilian as Architect places the emperor’s building activity beside Saint Leopold and a tiered assembly of ancestors. Monumental columns, crowded ornament and carefully framed portraits weave public achievement into a vision of dynastic continuity.
In this sheet from The Arch of Honor, Albrecht Altdorfer designed Maximilian’s architectural scene and the rusticated column, Albrecht Dürer Saint Leopold, and Hans Springinklee the ancestral portraits. Fine woodcut lines shift from decorative abundance to the small human encounter at the foot of the structure.
